“On behalf of Father Summers and the people of St. Agatha Parish and all of the priests gathered here today, I would like to extend our sympathy to Father Hussey’s family and to thank you for giving such a gifted man to the church as a priest. He touched many lives in his ministry and I am sure will continue to do so in the future. Our prayers are with you during these days and the days to come.
“In the first reading from the prophet Jeremiah, we hear the call of the prophet: ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.’ The same can be said of each of us. In other words, ‘I loved you and chose you.’
“Jeremiah was dedicated to be a prophet but replied that he was too young. Not an acceptable excuse for the Lord. The Lord told him not to fear because the Lord would be with him, taking care of whatever defects he had. ‘Then the Lord extended his hand and touched my mouth, saying, ‘See, I place my words in your mouth.’
“When one is ordained a priest, as he lay on the floor of the church while the community prays the Litany of Saints, he is very aware of his inadequacies and very aware of the grace and mercy of God. In his ordination, the Lord in effect says to the ordinand, ‘See, I place my words in your mouth.’ Ed spent the next 60-some years reflecting on that word, preaching and teaching that word, allowing it to guide his life and ministry.
“Ed would admit that he wasn’t perfect, at least on a good day. He saw faith as a gift that we respond to, and respond he did. In his response, he did much to strengthen the faith lives of many people, including myself. He helped me to wrap my head around this concept of faith as a gift, not easy for one coming from a science background.
“In his letter to the Romans, Paul says ‘If God is for us, who can be against us? … He handed his own Son over for us all. What will separate us from the love of Christ?’ His answer? Absolutely nothing! ‘For I am certain that neither death, nor life, nor angels or principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ Nothing can separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus.
“In the liturgies of Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, the church gave us Psalm 139 as the responsorial psalm: ‘You have searched me and you know me, Lord.’ And I would add, ‘And you still love me.’ Nothing can separate us from the love of God. That was a constant theme of Ed’s ministry.
“Ed had said that there had been a shift since Vatican Council II from a priesthood of power to a priesthood of service. He truly served God’s people with the Good News of God’s immense love.
“A young man, a husband and father came to see me the other night to talk over some things. He told me he had grown up in Springfield, Ohio and his family were members of St. Raphael Parish, where Ed had been pastor. He remembered Ed as being very tall and very kind. He celebrated this man’s first confession and first communion when he was in the second grade. He told me that after school Masses, Ed would stick around and talk with the kids for a while.
“There is no doubt that Ed was a very good theologian, professor, teacher, spiritual director and author. However, he was foremost a very good pastor. He had a pastoral sense about him in all that he did. He never stopped teaching but did so with a pastor’s heart.
“Ed had written that ‘My years as a priest have been generally exciting, sometimes challenging but never boring.’ One could never accuse Ed of being boring.
“For many years, Ed, Dave Funk and I traveled to the Abbey of Gethsemani in January or February for our annual retreat. The monks like you to be quiet. Ed and Dave had a little trouble with that part at a certain time of day. Dave always brought a rather large bag of snacks. Gethsemani is not known for its cuisine. He also brought a briefcase full not of books but rather with the makings of a bar.
“We were on retreat, but cocktail hour was considered a part of that. We would gather in Dave’s room before Vespers and dinner. Those two would get rather loud at times and I would remind them of the rules. Ed would just say ‘It’s time for a dividend, another drink. Mark, why don’t you get some more ice?’ He once said, ‘You know, I think I could live this life if they just had cocktail hour.’ I think we can say Ed was never boring.
“When Ed retired in Columbus to be close to his family, I told him he might want to help out at St. Agatha Parish because he chose to live near there. Dave Funk was pastor, and later, Dan Ochs. Ed found a true home here and the parish has benefited from his wisdom and his presence. Ed and Dave became great friends, as did Ed and Dan. Ed was very grateful for that. He enjoyed music and art and a good meal and, of course, a good Manhattan with at least one dividend.
“Ed could never be accused of being boring. But the last few years, I believe he had to deal with boredom. He was bedfast for several years as he suffered with his ill health. However, when you would visit him, he would try to be pleasant. He truly came to know the cross. The last couple of times I saw him he basically said ‘I want to die but I can’t.’
“He appreciated those who came to see him, his family and friends and brother priests. I am especially grateful to our presider today, Father Bob Farrell, who has looked in on Ed quite a bit. That’s what good friends do.
“In the Gospel, Jesus says ‘This is my commandment: Love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. … I have called you friends because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.’
“We are not all called to a martyr’s death in the traditional sense, but we are all called to love. I would think that all that Ed taught and believed about the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, he was living out in a very real way these past few years. He had the opportunity to offer his sufferings for those he loved, to unite his suffering to that of Christ, and trusted that in some way his suffering was redemptive, as was Christ’s.
“Ed was born on the Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist. His funeral Mass today is on the Feast of the passion and death of John the Baptist. If he ever wondered about whether he chose the right vocation, I would think that he would have reflected on what Jesus says next: ‘It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain.’ Ed was chosen and appointed to go and bear fruit as a priest. And that he has done well for these many years, and we are all evidence that the fruit he bore still remains.
“Ed was very fond of Father Karl Rahner’s theology – a great theologian of the 20th century. He gave many of his students a love for the same. He was an expert on Rahner. Rahner’s theology was one of hope. He believed that every human being has a supernatural existential, an inherent, if often unacknowledged, orientation toward God. All of humanity is created for and structured by the possibility of receiving divine love.
“Ed preached at my first Mass and ended with this prayer of Father Rahner. I would like to end with the same.
‘“The priest is not an angel sent from heaven. He is a man chosen from among men, a member of the church, a Christian. Remaining man and Christian, he begins to speak to you the word of God. This word is not his own. No, he comes to you because God has told him to proclaim God’s word.
‘Perhaps he has not entirely understood it himself. Perhaps he adulterates it. But he believes, and despite his fears, he knows that he must communicate God’s word to you.
‘For must not someone of us say something about God, about eternal life, about the majesty of grace in our sanctified being. Must not some one of us speak of sin, the judgment and mercy of God?’
“So, my dear friends, pray for him, carry him so that he might be able to sustain others by bringing to them the mystery of God’s love revealed in Christ Jesus.
“Ed, we pray that you rest now in God’s eternal love and peace. Thank you for your ministry, your wisdom and your love.”
Related to: Obituary: Priest served in diocese after retirement